#SMEsvote4EU - Why European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Should Vote on May 26?

Editorial by Stefan Moritz, Managing Director of European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME

The
imminent elections for the European Parliament on May 26th 2019
might seem to many a less important
election, something that happens “elsewhere”
and not in my backyard. It probably weighs heavily also the fact that the European Parliament is still perceived
as the weakest among the European
political institutions, composed by the Council of the EU, the European Commission and the Parliament:
it does not vote a government, it can’t propose laws and it is less active on ideological issues and much more on very
complex aspects, like analysing and reporting on legal proposals in committees,
mediating among stakeholders and negotiating with the other two lawmaking institutions.

And what
the European Parliament can do for SMEs
is even less clear to many.

Last but
not least, the European parliamentary elections are still, for 80%of their outcome, determined by national political debates
and not by the European political issues at stake. Or worse, some political parties
might even reduce the elections to a “in favour of or against Europe” binary choice, which is not really appealing to participate in,
neither in one sense nor in the other.

The risk,
that many entrepreneurs, their families, friends and employees, stay once again at
home on May 26 is very high.

But
particularly SMEs, their owners as well as all the people earning their living
thanks to them, should think twice
before deciding to go fishing or relax at home. The way to the ballots could
pay out much more than they would maybe imagine, for several reasons:

1. 70% of all laws that affect the market, financing, the capacity to employ and to grow, as well as the
production costs of SMEs are already
today defined at European level, and only then translated into national
laws.

2. National laws that do not comply with
the European treaties, directives or regulations can be changed through sentences of the European Court of Justice,
that overviews the coherence between national policies and European agreements.
In particular, there are more than 50% of Court of Justice cases in Luxembourg
that regard the equal access to the
European Single Market embracing all EU-countries, and especially for Small
and Medium-sized Enterprises.

3. Although
SMEs represent 99.8% of all registered enterprises, the lobbies of Big Corporations find many open earsin Brussels and Strasbourg. So,
when compared to the situation at national level, bigger enterprises are able
to influence much more the decision-making than SMEs. Coupled with the
fact that 70% of all laws are determined in Brussels and Strasbourg, the impact of this wrong relationship between
politics and SMEs is much bigger than on
national levels. We need your vote and your voice!

4. The EP
can’t vote a government, but it can
block the nomination of Commissioners and the President of the European Commission himself,
if the member states propose candidates that are not approved by the majority
of the 750 Members of European Parliament. That was already put in practice with the Juncker Commission, as well as in single cases even before.

5. The EP
can’t propose laws, but it can veto all
proposals of the EU Council or/and of the Commission: without the EP no directive
or regulation can be approved.

6. The EP
is also a place to exchange political views, compare national politics and
elaborate viable reforms for the European Union: such a great, transparent and representative think tank beats all private
think tanks, sometimes financed by not very transparent “interest groups”, with some
of them even financed from outside Europe.

7. The EP
has also a decisive role in
the definition of the European Union’s budget: in the last edition 2014-2020
this budget had doubled the funds for SMEs, and this pace should be continued
in 2021-2027. There are enormous challenges in front of all European SMEs
that need this support to be tackled, as for example digitalization and innovation, but also
international trade and competitiveness.

8. The questions
if either
in or out of the Euro, the European Union or other European cooperation
structures like Schengen, are questions that makes no sense for SMEs, alike as for
workers: only within the European Union
the rights, strength and equal treatment of these less strong parts of the
economy can be safeguarded. The less our single countries participate to
the European Single Market, in the European freedom of movement or in the
economic shelter of the Euro, the more SMEs are exposed to a much stronger global
competition than within the EU, suffer the even weaker influence of their
national states on global level than compared to the EU, and get much worse
conditions for exports or imports. One person recently said: in
Europe there are small countries and those that know that they are small.
None of the EU member states could do it alone, only together we are strong, and only
then SMEs can benefit.

9. Many opportunities are available to European
SMEs only thanks to the European Union: the quality of training (also thanks to ERASMUS), the relatively open internal markets with reliable standards all over the
continent, the financial support for
regional development, research, innovation, start-ups, digitalization, mobility
of workers, clear rules for
investment protection and legal
certainty for 500 million people.

10. And in many challenges ahead of us the EU is our best partner: climate
crisis, the risks of digitalisation and automation, China’s global expansion,
policies of closure
as currently the US is waging, wars and political crises in nearby countries, migration
- to name the most important ones: especially SMEs need here the solidarity and
strength of a united continent that shares 2.000 years of history, similar
cultural patterns and of course a common destiny.